Posts Tagged ‘occult’
amused irritation
“follow” me on Twitter at @newtownpentacle
– photo by Mitch Waxman
A humble narrator loves his conspiracy theories and crackpot notions.
Accordingly, as we only have a single score of days left until the end of the world on December 21 when the Mayan Calendar’s 13th b’ak’tun ends, I thought it important to tie up a few loose ends before the Apocalypse gets rolling. First off, the portents are painted all over the 20th century, if you care to look.
Also, as a note, the calendar stone which most websites seems to be using to illustrate the story- this one for instance, is actually Aztec (it’s the sun stone of Tonatiuh, silly).
Aztecs and Mayans are wildly different groups, comparable European populations would be Germans and Greeks, and Asian would be Mongol and Khmer.
in 1920, H.P Lovecraft saw his short story “Polaris” published in the December issue of an amateur publication called “The Philosopher”- an excerpt:
“Slumber, watcher, till the spheres,
Six and twenty thousand years
Have revolv’d, and I return
To the spot where now I burn.
Other stars anon shall rise
To the axis of the skies;
Stars that soothe and stars that bless
With a sweet forgetfulness:
Only when my round is o’er
Shall the past disturb thy door.”
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Galactic Alignments, coupled with the return of our solar system to the same spot it occupied some 226 million years ago– part of Sol’s galactic year, provide much fodder for those eager to meet their maker. Doomsday enthusiasts like to point out that this was the age of Dinosaurs, but they stuck around until 65 million years ago, so whatever hellish condition which is waiting for us- down the road- is still a pretty long way off.
This is 21st century America, where science and logic are a shunned belief system rife with disturbing assertions that challenge medieval superstitions and mythologies. You’ve only got 20 days to get that bunker set up in your apartment, best get to Home Depot before the lines get too long.
Apocalypse. Scary. Go buy stuff- Guns. Food. Store water and fuel. Feel better.
on December 1st, 1948, Australian Police opened what would become known as the Taman Shud case in Adelaide.
Around the same time as the Inquest, a tiny piece of rolled-up paper with the words “Tamam Shud” printed on it was found deep in a fob pocket sewn within the dead man’s trouser pocket. Public library officials called in to translate the text identified it as a phrase meaning “ended” or “finished” found on the last page of a collection of poems called The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam. The theme of these poems is that one should live life to the full and have no regrets when it ended. The paper was blank on the reverse and police conducted an Australia wide search to find a copy of the book that had a similar blank reverse but were unsuccessful.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
As New York has recently undergone its own form of apocalypse, in tune with the Assyrian mythos which predict the worlds end as an oceanic flood (accompanied by the return of the chaos dragon Tiamat and her horde of battrachian children rising to devour the land and all of its dwellers), it would be hoped that we might be able to avoid the end times fever which will certainly sweep across the planet. Remember- only 20 days left…
It’s 12/1/12- only 28,800 minutes, or 480 hours, left. If you divide 480 by the number of the beast- 666- you get the number 0.720720720720720. That probably means something important for the forthcoming Mayan Apocalypse, huh?
Why 666, do you ask?
Also, on this day in 1947, Aleister Crowley died at Netherwood. There is no such thing as coincidence, at least according to science, which deems it statistically unimportant.
common superstition
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Things have been relatively quiet over in St. Michael’s cemetery of late. The declaration refers to the lack of occultist activity, documented in earlier posts, at a certain spot which is high on a hill that has served some unknown individual in the past as an altar- likely in accordance with one of the syncretic Afro Cuban religions adhered to by many of the new neighbors in Queens who hail from the Caribbean and South American locales.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The week before Halloween, and Sandy, your humble narrator walked over to the polyandrion and surveyed the scene. By all appearances, there was little to report, with the exception of extraordinarily deep ruts in the ground thereabouts. By all appearances, it seemed that something quite heavy stood here.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The ruts were in a roughly tripodal configuration, with a fourth that was not quite as deep. Other than this puzzling series of indentations, no bottles of fluid nor the presence of melted candles was detected. How I would love to set up a camera nest in a nearby tree on the night of a full moon, and witness what this unknowable cultist gets up to, but one does not hang around in cemeteries after the burning thermonuclear eye of god itself has set into the western sky. Not here, in the Newtown Pentacle.
“follow” me on Twitter at @newtownpentacle
gibbous glow
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Since Hurricane Sandy and the accompanying storm surge were made a few degrees worse by the full moon and it’s accompanying tidal forces, it occurred to me that in addition to having somehow pissed off Poseidon- New York might have angered a lunar deity as well. There are lords of the sea, and lords of the sky, after all.
from wikipedia
The pregnancy of Coatlicue, the maternal Earth deity, made her other children embarrassed, including her oldest daughter Coyolxauhqui. As she swept the temple, a few hummingbird feathers fell into her chest. Coatlicue’s child, Huitzilopochtli, sprang from her womb in full war armor and killed Coyolxauhqui, along with their 400 brothers and sisters. He cut off her limbs, then tossed her head into the sky where it became the moon, so that his mother would be comforted in seeing her daughter in the sky every night.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
More often than not, the moon is represented by a goddess in the west, which ties the waxing and waning of the Earth’s anomalous astronomic companion to the female cycle of menses. In the near and far east, the moon was interpreted somewhat differently.
from wikipedia
In Cook Islands mythology, specifically of the Hervey Islands, Avatea also known as Vatea (meaning ‘bright’) was a lunar deity and the father of gods and men in Mangaian myth of origin.
According to one myth, Vari-Ma-Te-Takere (The primordial mother) created six children from her body. Three were plucked from her right side and three from her left. The first of which was Avatea, the first man, who was perceived as a moon god. As he grew he divided vertically into a hybrid being; the right half was a man and the left half a fish.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The pagan, as in historical pre Christian religious beliefs, would see the moon as a threatening and sinister celestial sign. This is a hold over from the old days of wicker kings and female priesthoods, of course, if you subscribe to the theories of Robert Graves. One would suggest that in the future, New York City take the lunar cycle a bit more seriously, lighting beeswax candles and offering appropriate ablutions.
from wikipedia
In ancient Roman religion and myth, Luna is the divine embodiment of the Moon (Latin luna; cf. English “lunar”). She is often presented as the female complement of the Sun (Sol) conceived of as a god. Luna is also sometimes represented as an aspect of the Roman triple goddess (diva triformis), along with Proserpina and Hecate. Luna is not always a distinct goddess, but sometimes rather an epithet that specializes a goddess, since both Diana and Juno are identified as moon goddesses.
In Roman art, Luna’s attributes are the crescent moon and the two-yoke chariot (biga). In the Carmen Saeculare, performed in 17 BC, Horace invokes her as the “two-horned queen of the stars” (siderum regina bicornis), bidding her to listen to the girls singing as Apollo listens to the boys.
embowered banks
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Walking through Calvary Cemetery recently, directly following the so called Hunters Moon recently enjoyed by all, your humble narrator decided to check in on “The Tree fed by a Morbid Nutrition” which has been observed as the site of occult activity in the recent past. The postings “Triskadekaphobic Paranoia” and “Update on the Calvary Knots” discussed the tree and its locale in some detail. It’s a lonely spot at a high elevation, a lost corner in the emerald devastations of Calvary.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The four paper bags were artfully concealed, and neatly arranged. It was only while walking a widdershin circumnavigation of the loathsome arbor that they were noticed. The path taken by most is alien to one such as myself, and long experience suggests that it is often profitable to investigate the hidden. Accordingly, a pocket tool was employed and one of the little sacks was inspected.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The jingle of coins was detected, although not visually observed. Magickal practice often involves direct involvement with bodily fluids and other esoteric compounds- some pharmacological in nature and possibly psychoactive- and it is best to not touch such artifacts with bare skin. Additionally, for those of you who subscribe to a supranormal world view which includes the presence of invisible intelligences and intangible entities possessed of power beyond human imagination, there are other possible exposures which might emanate from violating a ritual altar.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The package included some sort of vegetable or fruit, which had an incision midway through its ovum. Normally, it would be time for one to speculate on either the magickal or occult philosophy represented by this peasant altar, but frankly- leaving four sacks of incised vegetative matter and coinage in a deserted cemetery altar is one thing which I do not wish to speculate upon. A growing sense of dread and paranoid wonderings began to envelop me and I decided to just leave this thing to itself. In Calvary Cemetery, and all burial grounds, one hopes to leave naught but a single set of footprints behind, and carry nothing but photographs back out through the stout iron gates.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The (possible) Witch Knots were still in place on neighboring monuments, it should be mentioned.
Also- Upcoming tours…
for an expanded description of the October 13th Kill Van Kull tour, please click here
for an expanded description of the October 20th Newtown Creek tour, please click here
effective radius
– photo by Mitch Waxman
A lesser sabbat on the great wheel of the year, at 10:49 this morning, New York City will pass through the fall equinox. Today, the day and night will oppose each other equally, and from now until March, darkness will rule as relative to light. Summer ends, and the harvest time is visited upon all that walk beneath the ever fainter emanations of the burning thermonuclear eye of god itself.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Before long will we all be sitting before tables of bounty, gazing upon roasted meats and other oven baked fare. Just the other night, a filthy black raincoat was removed from its summer hook, and a humble narrator again filled it. Chill is the night, which grows ever longer. Soon shall we all feast, and learn new ways to laugh and revel and enjoy ourselves, as we give our so called “thanks”.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Nepenthe is found in this season, as we slouch roughly toward Samhain and the Yule, as it’s the time of tales told. Stories of goblins and werecats, ghosts and ghasts, and the hidden world of the occultist will soon be readily revealed. On the wheel of the year, this is the start of the spooky time- when farmers fields become the property of crows and ravens, and odd occurrences abound- during the endless nights.
The Newtown Pentacle 